IIT-M develops portable tool to detect heavy metals in water and soilThe Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) on Tuesday announced that...
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network
The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) on Tuesday announced that their researchers are developing a point-of-use, portable tool to detect heavy metals in soil and water.
"The research objective is to package the technology into an engineered device, which will be programmed to provide a non-technical read-out value of the soil quality index on a mobile phone-like application. At present, there are no field-usable or point-of-use solutions that a layperson can operate for heavy metal detection in soil," said a release from IIT-Madras.
According to data from the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, it is estimated that drinking water sources in over 36,000 rural habitations in India are affected by fluoride, arsenic, and heavy metal contamination. "The presence of heavy metals also affects soil quality by adding to soil salinity, which would have a significant counterproductive effect on global food security through reduced agricultural yield and adverse effects on human health. Existing high-end techniques like 'Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy' (ICP-OES) are not user-friendly to laymen and farmers as they require lengthy procedures, with heavy reliance on sophisticated laboratories. A point-of-use, portable device operable by laypersons has immense benefits, both from social and economic impact perspectives," it added. Highlighting the potential key impact of this technology, Professor Sreeram K Kalpathy of IIT-Madras said, "The extensive reliance of the Indian population on agriculture necessitates an immediate technological solution such as detecting and measuring heavy metal concentrations. This would give farmers the information they need for deciding which crops to cultivate and when to make interventions."
https://www.dtnext.in/news/city/iit-m-develops-portable-tool-to-detect-heavy-metals-in-water-and-soil-737284
Taxonomy
- Heavy Metal Removal
- Heavy metals